The Wish Machine
by TicklishSlytherinDragon
Summary: After losing Donna, the Tenth Doctor and his second companion Olivia Michaels stumbles upon a machine that grants any wish at the prize of remodeling the entire universe... Will the Doctor choose love or the universe? Set after Journeys End, 10/Donna, No Self Insert
1. Chapter 1

The Wish Machine (a Doctor Who Story)

Chapter One:

The Doctor left the house where Donna's mother lived behind him the house where he just had said goodbye to Donna Noble, and she didn't recognize him, or even remembered all the adventures they'd had. All the countless worlds they had saved together, the Doctor, Donna and Olivia, his other companion, who had grown to become like a little sister to Donna.

The dreaded scene from a few hours ago kept replaying in his mind, despite him trying to push it away.

" _I want to stay", Donna said quickly, not wanting to realize the truth_

" _Look at me." The Doctor tried to keep his voice calm_

" _I was gonna be with you forever, for the rest of my life, traveling in the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna" Donna said longingly. She doubled over from the pain caused by the Time Lord-powers she couldn't handle. "Don't make me go back, please don't make me go back." she sobbed, both from pain and grief. The Doctor grabbed her shoulders, trying to steady her, and wishing he could keep her in the TARDIS forever just like she wanted to._

" _We had the best of times. The best. Goodbye" he whispered. And then he gently placed his fingers on her temples, trying not to mind her painful sobs and the pleas._

 _Donna relaxed and he caught her, held her one last time before he had to let go._

The Doctor had been so lost in thought that he never noticed the TARDIS until she hummed at him. He apologized to her and opened the door of the blue police box. Inside he was met with an angry looking teenager with dark blond hair framing her face and red rimmed, hazel eyes behind glasses. "She begged you to stay! She _begged_ you!" Olivia Michaels whispered, barely able to keep her tears at bay. "I had to." The Doctor said "Or else she would have died," he whispered, trying to keep his emotions at bay.

"At least she would have died remembering _us_ , what we did, and all the worlds we saved!" Olivia screamed. She turned around and darted out of the control room, the TARDIS sealing the door shut behind her.

The Doctor sighed and leaned against the TARDIS' panels, trying to keep the images of a certain red-haired woman out of his head, and trying not to miss the sassy _"Oi, Spaceman!"_ and trying not to think about all the ways she had changed him. He probably would have let the merchant family in Pompeii die if she hadn't told him to save them, and he most likely would have destroyed London when defeating the Racnoss Empress had she not been there to stop him. There were also other things, like how she made him feel better when thoughts of everyone he had failed to save overcame him, and how she comforted him after the run in with the monster on Midnight. _Stop it,_ he reprimanded himself. _Donna is gone. She is not coming back, you cannot have her._ He rubbed his temples, attempting to clear his mind and started fiddling with the controls. Tinkering with the TARDIS always took his mind off the hardships that comes with always trying to save everyone.

Somewhere in the TARDIS, Olivia Michaels lay on her bed sobbing. Normally she considered screaming at a nine-hundred-year-old alien a very bad idea, but that was before said alien erased her best friend's memories. She got out of bed, and wiped her red-rimmed eyes and nose on her sleeve. On one of the walls hung a board, crammed with photos of her, Donna and the Doctor, looking happy or high five-ing each other, as they always did after a completed mission. Olivia had taken a habit of taking one picture of the three of them for every location, like Pompeii, The Ood Sphere and even Earth in the 1920s where they helped Agatha Christie solve a mystery involving a giant wasp.

Olivia pulled down the most recent picture, the one with Donna, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness, taken only a day ago after they had defeated the Daleks and returned the stolen planets to their solar systems. Just one day ago, they had been happy, the three of them, together, saving planets. Now Donna was gone and Olivia missed her best friend terribly, and if she was not mistaken, the Doctor did too, even if he would rather let himself be exterminated by a Dalek than say it out loud.

She sighed and went back to her bed in an attempt to get some sleep before tomorrow's new adventures.


	2. Chapter 2

The Wish Machine Chapter 2

Olivia walked into the TARDIS kitchen the next morning. The Doctor was going on about what new planets and adventures that could possibly await them today. He seemed far away from the grieving and broken man he had been yesterday, but his eyes said otherwise. They were as dark and silent as the space outside their time-machine. This was the shut-in look he always had when he lost someone. However, when he noticed that he was not alone in the room his expression changed and he beamed at her, eyes full of his usual excitement and lust for adventure.

"Good morning Olivia Michaels! I set the controls on random over the night. I have no idea where the old girl has taken us, really."

"Uh, what?" Olivia had been so busy pondering her best friend's mental health to really hear what he was saying.

"I put the TARDIS controls on random. She has just picked a place in the universe and we'll explore it. Brilliant, don't you think?" The Doctor flashed his usual wide smile, and his eyes glinted with excitement. Olivia smiled. Maybe an adventure could take both their minds off of Donna. They both needed it; she suspected that the Doctor was not as carefree and happy as he wanted her to believe. "Fine, I'll just finish my breakfast and then we'll go."

Olivia had expected a new planet, maybe a meadow with blue grass or a futuristic looking city with flying cars and green skinned people, but not this. The TARDIS had landed in a gigantic storage room. In the middle of the room stood a giant metal cube, covered in blinking lights, and with a lever and a muzzle which looked like one of those old 19th century phones. The machine was a strange sight to say the least. The Doctor had already gone to work scanning the strange alien machine with his sonic screwdriver. She could hear him mutter to himself while working. "No you're not alive, but I sure have never seen anything like you before. Brilliant you are…"

Olivia stayed in the background, letting the Doctor work. For all her love of science fiction novels and good adventures she was just a human former college student who had stumbled upon a man with a blue box. A little over a year ago her homeroom teacher had found a laser screwdriver next to a pyre and used it to turn his students into an army of Cybermen and take over the world. He didn't come that far, because a man in a blue box and his red-headed companion had stopped him with a little help from an unsuspecting student with a taste for adventure, and the rest was, as they say, history.

"Hey what's this?" Olivia bent down to look at a small bronze placard near the muzzle. It was written in some alien language, but with the TARDIS translator, she could read it:

"Whisper here your hearts deepest wish. The wish machine will grant it."

"That does not sound good. It's probably some sort of pocket dimension generator, we should leave." The Doctor had been reading over her shoulder, and he didn't look that excited anymore. She could see the darkness in his eyes that was there every time he thought or spoke about someone he had lost. There was also something else in his eyes, like he longed to speak into that muzzle to have his deepest wish fulfilled. The moment lasted only a second before he turned around and marched into the TARDIS without looking back.

Olivia blinked, surprised. The Doctor _not_ running head-first into a challenge in a new and unknown world? Something was off, very off, she thought. And she had an idea of what it might be, that was why she leaned forward into the alien 19th century phone muzzle and whispered:

"Please give Donna back to us. I'll do anything and I think he will too because he loves her, and I think he is losing his mind without her." Then with a lingering glance back Olivia left the machine behind her, and walked back into the TARDIS.


	3. Chapter 3

The Wish Machine Chapter 3

When stepping out of the TARDIS their first thought was that they had ended up in 19th Century London, had it not been for the fact that this planet, wherever they were, was the home of not only humans, but all manners of creatures from all the corners of the universe.

The TARDIS had landed in the middle of what looked like the main street, creatures from all the corners of the universe were milling about in all directions. Most of them wore 19th-century style clothing combined with cybernetic trinkets, like goggles around their necks or a steam-driven prosthetic leg.

Puzzled, the Doctor scanned the air with his sonic screwdriver; they were indeed on the same coordinates as the room with the ominous cube in it. He swirled around and dug his nails into Olivia's shoulder.

"That machine, did you use it?" he asked sharply, his dark eyes bearing into hers. She lifted her head defiantly, "So what if I did?"

"That machine is a weapon. It restructures the universe to fit the person who uses it. You may have brought about the end of the world."

"I only asked to get Donna back, because I know she wouldn't want to be left on Earth without memories."

The Doctor glared at her "We don't know what the machine have changed yet but your actions might have put Donna in danger," he growled, and walked down the street, Olivia trailing behind him, head hung dejectedly.

They found a small inn not very far from where the TARDIS had landed. It was a small homely inn run by a Silurian man, and like seemingly everything in this world it was a mix of steam-technology and 19-th century interior.

While the Doctor stayed in the lounge to find out what was going on Olivia went up to the room they had rented. She now lay sprawled on her bed, fiddling with an object she always carried in her back pocket, next to her laser screwdriver. It was a silver pocket-watch engraved with pictured of stars and planets. She sighed, twiddling the chain of her watch. She had only wanted to help, to bring things back to the way they were before, when everything was good, but apparently the universe wouldn't allow the Doctor to be happy. She sat up and looked through a stack of celebrity magazines lying on the coffee table. She felt her heart skip a beat when she recognized the red-haired woman on the cover of one of them.

The Doctor looked sadly down into his drink. He really hadn't meant to shout at Olivia like that, she was a good kid and didn't deserve to be treated like that. She had only tried to help after all. But since he had left Donna he had had trouble controlling the Oncoming Storm, and he knew that Donna had been right that day when they first met: He needed someone there with him. He knew that he needed her. A glance at the strange steam-powered telly suddenly had all the blood drain from his face at the sight of the red-haired woman dressed in a long purple gown and hanged with golden jewels. He quickly halted the Silurian barkeep and asked about the woman. The barkeep gave him an incredulous look, "Why that's Donna Noble, the President of Earth. Saved the universe when all them planets lined up in the sky," the Silurian said "She is getting married to the emperor of the Racnoss. There's a soirée tonight at the President's mansion where their union will be announced to the public. It's on everyone's lips, this town's just mad for gossip." The lizard-man sighed, and shook his head.

Just then Olivia bolted down the stairs, eyes wide and with a rumpled magazine in hand. When she had caught her breath, all she said was: "Doctor, I think I have found her."

Getting into the President's mansion was fairly easy, when you have a psychic paper and a charming smile. They had just flashed the psychic paper and had been let in as special guests of President Noble.

The Doctor eyed the ballroom-guests silently. The news of the "Racnoss-emperor" had put him on edge. This was exactly why the pocket-universe-machine was dangerous. It unraveled the fabric of time to fit the commands it had been given, making little changes in the process. Like reviving people who should be dead, for example. People like Lance Bennet, Donna's would- be husband who had poisoned her and had intended to use her to aid the Empress of the Racnoss in reviving her people. Considering that, the title "Racnoss-emperor" gave him the shivers.

Somewhere among the guests Donna Noble was feeling slightly annoyed, thank you. What else would you expect when someone wants you to marry some bloke you never met. _At least I hope he's handsome_ , Donna thought. She had these recurring dreams about a lanky dark-haired man in a pinstripe-suit, and unbelievable fantastic amazing adventures. She could never see his face, and she always woke up feeling like she had forgotten something. To be honest, she forgot a lot of things, everyone kept talking about the planets that had been visible in the sky and kept claiming that she had saved the world yet she remembered neither. _Mum was right, I'm absolutely hopeless_ , she sighed.

The sound of the guests' chatter increasing startled her out of her thoughts. The crowd had parted to make place for a man in a white suit; he was flanked by two half-human half arachnoid guards. Donna shuddered involuntarily, both because of the half-spiders and because something about the man was vaguely familiar.

Lance Bennet smirked when he laid eyes on her. "Donna Noble, we finally meet again."

His tone sparked her anger; she tossed her hair back and replied with her usual sass:

"Sorry Sunshine, I don't know you. Don't boss me around."


	4. Chapter 4

The Wish Machine Chapter 4

The Doctor noticed Lance Bennet the moment he walked into the ballroom. He had been right, Donna's would-be husband _was_ the emperor of the Racnoss. He caught Olivia's eye at the buffet, where she was stuffing her face. She went over to him, mouth full of food.

"What?"

"That man tried to kill Donna the first time we met. I bet he is looking for revenge since he died partly because of me."

"Oh." Olivia's eyes widened, she realized that her using the pocket universe machine had allowed this to happen.

"Very clever, _Doctor_ ," Lance sneered. "Imagine my surprise when I was brought back to life. I figured I might kill two birds with one stone. Kill this _bitch_ and have my revenge on you."

He grabbed Donna by the neck, and held her against him like a shield.

"Watch it, you!" Donna spat and tried to break free, but Lance was too strong.

The Doctor froze for a second. Should he attempt to attack Lance he would hurt Donna in the process. But he knew he had to do something, he couldn't lose her again.

"What the hell? Just let go of her!" Olivia shouted as she tried to reach Donna and Lance. She was halted by the Racnoss guards, however and tried to kick herself free. Some measure of martial skill was a perk of space adventuring, she thought.

Meanwhile, the Silurian palace guards had been alerted to the commotion by panicked guests. They now stormed into the castle, fully armored with pulse-guns and sleek swords at the ready. They were met by Lance's own army of Racnoss soldiers, sliding from the high ceiling on spider-silk threads.

The Doctor did what he could, enhancing the Silurian guards' weapons with his sonic screwdriver. Olivia had broken free from the two guards holding ner and was now fighting alongside the guards with her laser screwdriver, effectively cutting through the Racnoss' armor.

Lance saw his chance to escape; he grabbed the protesting Donna by the arm and dragged her towards the exit and his waiting spaceship. The Doctor, however, was quicker. He grabbed a discarded Silurian sword and pointed it at Lance.

"You let her go _now_ , you sorry excuse for a human," he growled, voice dark with poison and anger. The Oncoming Storm was just below the surface.

" _Fine_ ," Lance spat, and threw Donna to the ground. The Doctor swiftly caught her beforeher head hit the floor.

"Who are you?" said she, a trace of sass under the hesitancy. Lanky frame, messy dark hair, pinstripe suit, _could it be?_ she thought. _But he wasn't real, was he?_ She winced as something tugged at the corners of her consciousness..

"I am a friend, Donna Noble," he whispered softly.

 _Argh, stupid spiders, and stupid dress._ Olivia had been cornered by three Racnoss soldiers, and her flowing, Victorian-style dress was _not_ helping. The Silurian soldiers were held back by more spiders, so she was on her own, with only a laser screwdriver.

Suddenly one of the Racnoss soldiers grabbed her and she felt a tug at her throat as the lock on her lucky-pocket-watch snapped. It snapped open as it hit the ground and threw the Racnoss back in a pulse of golden light.

 _Funny, that thing has never opened before_ , was all Olivia could think before her mind filled with memories that weren't hers, but still were.

 _She was naked, that was her first conscious thought as she awoke among the rubble of the Paradox Machine. She had been born from the time vortex when Donna triggered the Metacrisis. Her skin was still glowing golden with regeneration energy._

 _Suddenly she became aware of another presence in the destroyed Paradox machine. The woman had white skin and hair, and was dressed in a black robe._

" _Come, child of the vortex," she said, not unkindly, "Let me show you your purpose." She was then led out to a waiting spacecraft, where two large rhino-like creatures were waiting._

" _So I am some sort of cosmic failsafe?" she questioned._

 _She had been taken to this place, the Shadow Proclamation, and had been clad in the same black robes as their leader, who had just finished her explanation._

" _Yes, for lack of better words, you are. Donna Noble never wanted to leave the Doctor, thus her time lord consciousness fought the Doctor's attempt at sealing it away and created you, to help Donna transition into a real Time Lady."_

" _How am I supposed to help her, I was separated from her mind."_

 _The Shadow Architect smiled slightly. "With this. It is one of the last chameleon arcs in existence. The Doctor has the other." The Shadow Proclamation leader showed her a peculiar arc and a pocket watch engraved with stars and planets._

" _This will seal away your identity as the child of the vortex and give you a human background. We will then send you into the Doctor's timeline to give the universe a push in the right direction." She smiled as she said the last thing._

Though it had felt like an eternity it took only a moment for the Child of the Vortex to awaken. Her eyes glowed golden and regeneration energy swirled around her making her hair flow as if caught in a storm.

"Donna Noble, take my hand," she said, extending her hand to Donna.

"Again, who are you people?" Donna said weakly. She felt her timelord consciousness bubble to the surface, causing her great pain.

"Oh, Donna Noble…" the Doctor whispered sadly.

"Take my hand," the Child of the Vortex said more firmly. Donna hesitated at first, but then did as she was told. There was a burst of regeneration energy as the Child of the Vortex dissolved and found her right place in Donna's mind.

Donna slowly opened her eyes to look at the Doctor. Her eyes were glowing softly.

"Spaceman…" she whispered. Then her eyes narrowed and she slapped him across the face.

"What was that for?!" the Doctor sputtered and rubbed his cheek. Still he couldn't help grinning, his Donna Noble was back with him.

"How. Dare. You." She growled between gritted teeth. "How dare you make me forget you?! Oh I'll deal with you later, _Spaceman."_ She then turned to Lance, who had been thrown against a wall by the vortex energy and was now cowering on the floor.

"You tried to kill us _twice_ ," she stated calmly to the trembling man. Golden energy particles swirled around her hands. She threw a blast of energy, which hit him square in the chest, disintegrating him.

"Now Spaceman," she said as she tuned to the Doctor. The Doctor backed away, thinking she would slap him again. Instead, she grabbed the front of his pinstripe suit and captured his lips with her own. The kiss was interrupted when the world started disintegrating, the pocket-universe-machine having fulfilled its purpose.

Donna smiled and braided her fingers with the Doctor's.

"Run, Martian boy." She shouted, laughing.

"For the last time, _I'm not from Mars."_ He laughed back at her.

They got into the TARDIS as the last of the pocket universe disappeared, leaving a room and an ominous machine behind.

And so the Song continues,. The DoctorDonna in the TARDIS forever, as it should be.

FIN


End file.
